Hernando Cortés, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, wrote five letters from New Spain to the king, in which he recounted, in a simple but detailed style, Spain's progressive entry into new lands.

Day after day 60,000 people congregate here to buy and sell. Every imaginable kind of merchandise is available from all parts of the Empire, foodstuffs and dress, . . . gold, silver, copper, . . . precious stones, leather, bone, mussels, coral, cotton, feathers. . . . Everything is sold by the piece or by measurement, never by weight. In the main market there is a law court in which there are always ten or twelve judges performing their office and taking decisions on all marketing controversies. ...

This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs; the principal ones religious persons of each particular sect are constantly residing, for whose use beside the houses containing the idols there are other convenient habitations. ... Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred families.

Asked what tribute is given to him each year by his subjects, he replied that…his subjects cultivate…100 topos[1] of land…of potatoes, quinoa, and canagua[2]  … to plant one topo of land 16 Indian males and 8 Indian females are employed in plowing in one day. … To these…who work the land it is customary to give meat, potatoes, chuño[3], maize, quinoa, coca, and chicha[4]. … In addition…Chuquito provides 40 to 50 Indians each year to go with [pack] animals provided by the [chief] to bring maize from Moquegua and Sama [Peruvian coast locations] and Capinota and Larecaja [Bolivian valleys] and coca from Cuzco [the capital] to [the chief’s] home.

[1] Topo – indeterminate area of land amounting to what a couple needs to survive

[2] Canagua – crop similar to quinoaa

[3] Chuño – freeze-dried potatoes

[4] Chicha – maize beer